Reconceiving Freedom from the Shadows of Slavery

Liberty in a Nonideal World

John Christman

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009440219
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy

In a departure from standard approaches to the concept of liberty, in this book John Christman locates and defends the concept of freedom as a fundamental social value that arose out of fights against slavery and oppression. Seen in this light, liberty must be understood as requiring more than mere non-interference or non-domination – it requires the capacity for self-government and the capabilities needed to pursue valued activities, practices, and ways of life. Christman analyses the emergence of freedom as a concept through nineteenth- and twentieth-century struggles against slavery and other oppressive social forms, and argues that a specifically positive conception best reflects its origins and is philosophically defensible in its own right. What results is a model of freedom that captures its fundamental value both as central to the theoretical architecture of constitutional democracies and as an aspiration for those striving for liberation.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Imprints page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I Methodology and a Shift in Perspective
• Part II Reconstructing the Concept of Freedom
• Part III Conclusions and Applications
• References
• Index